Capt Midnight

Charles,

You raised a number of valid points in your reply, and I will try to answer them as best I can, but maybe not necessarily in the order that they came up.

First of all, I've decided to start a construction thread in another forum ([link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3589652/tm.htm[/link]) as this thread is over 4 years old, and this is a "Fantasy Scale" concept, not a true "Scale" racer. If the Kimball's decide to go ahead with their full scale build plans, then this forum becomes more valid.

Regarding kit versions, I believe there may have been two lots (of 50) produced in 2008; the initial lot in June, and another lot in September. I believe your kit may have come out of the 2nd lot. I spoke with Mike Hines in mid-December regarding the status of the next shipment, and was told it was being delayed until mid-January to allow the manufacturer time to make some changes to the kit. Mike said that among other details, the manufacturer was changing from chinacoat to Oracoat (Oracover) to make for a stronger and more durable finish, and was changing the canopy retention method (also for increased strength and durability).

Lot #3 was shipped in mid-January, and contained the new revisions, one of which I now have. Unfortunately, in parsing from English to French to Chinese and back again, something was lost in the translation.

Yup, the Chinese modified the canopy alright, but they modified the wrong end!

The original canopy blew off from the FRONT to the REAR as a result of the balsa F1 former splitting in half just above the mounting tab. The canopy on the new aircraft still had the single balsa F1 former (about 1/8" thick) up front, but the Chinese added a spring-loaded latch to the REAR of the canopy (which was never in question in the first place). After inspecting the new canopy, I decided to reinforce the F1 former by adding 2 lite-ply doublers to each side of the F1 former, and sandwiching a layer of glass cloth in between as well. I also added two hollow .250 dia. C/F tubes to the front of the canopy that mate up with mounting holes of the F1 former on the fuse. Photos below will show some of the details.

Of the other changes that I noted, there were precious few that I could detect, but the most notable was the firewall block-off plate which had been 1/16 plywood, and was changed to 1/16 balsa in the new version. I built the new version with the balsa block-off plate as provided, but added 6 - 1/2" dia. cooling vent holes under the engine mounting box. I will add ventral cooling holes in the fuse at a later date.

Regarding the differences in the two versions of the instruction manual, the original manual had the following specs for the flight control surface settings:

Elevator: 10 mm up/down
Rudder: 30 mm left/right
Ailerons: 5 mm up/down

The revised manual posted on 7/30/2008, had the following notation:

Elevator: +/- 30mm with 25% Exponential
Rudder: +/- 50mm with 50% Exponential
Ailerons: +/- 15-20mm with 40% Exponential

Which one was right? Which one was wrong? You be the judge. What I flew the first bird with is now irrelevant. What I'll fly the second bird with will be covered on the construction thread on the other forum.

Lastly, all decisions begin and end with the Pilot. Take offs are very optional, landing isn't. If I knew then, what I know now, I would not have flown the plane, but would have instead fixed all the problems that I didn't know existed in the first place. Suffice to say, the documentation that went out to Lobby Lobby was very detailed and far beyond the scope of this post, or this forum. I have however, learned from the experience and will apply what I've learned to the new Gee Bee when it flies in May.

Thanks,